With Iron Man 3 due to hit flick rooms in the UK at the end of this week, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the appetite of the post-Avengers public for more Marvel goodness is at an all-time high.

Crashing down to earth then, so that it might mingle with us cretinous mere mortals is the first teaser trailer for the Thor: The Dark World.

It appears to spin an epic looking yarn all things told on this first, most meagre of impressions, but already the trailer has done two things right.

Firstly, its margainlised the involvement of Kat Dennings’ limp comic-reliefcharacter and secondly, its provides us with the horrendously awesome tease of a mightily disheveled Loki and Thor working together in the face of a common threat.

Speaking of that threat, we see little of Chris Ecclestone‘s main-event antagonist but we’re in early days folks. Early days.

I have to say though, that so far, this tickles my nerd twangs in some pretty obscene ways. What about you lot?

The long-awaited red band trailer for Kick Ass 2 has finally violated the interwebs and as predicted, it exudes many different types of face-numbing awesomeness.

If you didn’t like the first one then you’re not going to like this one either because its safe to say that, tonally at least, the second film appears very similar to the 2010 original. And well, if you didn’t like the first film why the fuckity did you click on the link to this in the first place?

So yeah, it looks like more Kick-Ass with a wider cast which includes some added Jim Carrey.

Jim Motherfucking Carrey. Seriously, this could end up being his film; he looks like some sort of dirty, revelation. Top notch.

Minkyu Lee‘s Oscar nominated Adam and Dog is a compacted retelling of the Adam & Eve fable but with the titular slant of Adam making friends with ‘Dog’; the first of his kind seemingly.

Its modest fifteen minute run-time is over before you know it but within that quarter of an hour of retinal intercourse you’ll be exposed to some of the most gorgeously hand-drawn visuals you’ll have ever seen and a narrative tale that tugs on the heart-strings without its characters ever uttering a single word.

Turn off the lights, park your ass in your most comfortable seat and allow Lee to entrance you with one of the singularly best animated short films in recent memory.

Adam and Dog is currently nominated for Best Animated Short Film for the 85th Academy Awards and won Best Animated Short Subject at the 39th Annie Awards.

One of the more notable matches on February 23rd’s UFC 157 pay-per-view card is the one that pits wrestling brawler Dan ‘Hendo’ Henderson against Karate wunderkind Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida.

Because the match is likely to be a barn burner and also because I know you’re all just dying to hear me talk shit on the matter, I’m going to do an analytical breakdown thing of how each fighter could achieve victory in just over three weeks time.

There will also be a prediction of the match winner at the end, but read the rest of it first though eh? I’ll know if you don’t.

During its call to stuffy-suit wearing investors who probably don’t give a rodent’s anus about videogames outside of how much paper it can make them, Ubisoft confirmed that not only would there be a new Assassins Creed title (I know right? The shock. Please, try to contain yourself) but that it would showcase an all-new character (sorry Connor, better luck next time… Oh wait.) in an all-new time-period.

For the sake of innovation you can also expect to press a new button too. Pressing ‘A’ after all is so 2007.

Anyhow, i’m somewhat eager to see what the new setting is. Personally, I think they should pull the trigger on a Japanese setting for the next game and have you play as a ninja, slitting the throats of fat feudal lords and styming your pursuers with caltrops and stuff.

It would be great. Maybe.

What setting do you think would be a natural fit for the next ‘Creed game?

So Josh Barnett going to the UFC? Yeah, that’s not going to happen now as Barnett’s manager, one Leland LaBarre, has communicated that the ‘Warmaster‘ has officially declined the newest contractual offer by the promotion.

Frustrated? Yep, I sure am; a veritable slew of entertaining matchups awaits the ‘Warmaster’ in the UFC’s HW division.

Fucking hell Josh.

According to LaBarre, money isn’t the issue; instead citing some “outlying issues” as the impuetus for the contract refusal, “We agreed on guaranteed compensation. In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer. However, there are some outlying issues — one in particular — that as of this point we were unable to agree on.”

As you might very well guess, the house that Dana White help build had no comment on the situation, but with any luck, we’ll see them around the negotiating table again.

What we do know however is that it’ll be a while until we see the catch-as-catch-can wrestling submission specialist returns to the Octagon. Barnett, whose record stands at a commendable 32-6, had his last dance in the UFC nearly eleven years ago where on March 22nd, 2002, he leathered the shit out of Randy Couture en route to a TKO victory to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion, only to have the title stripped off of him for pissing hot for banned substances after the bout.

His last fight was against the hilariously over-matched Nandor Guelmino during Strikeforce‘s swansong show in January, ending that particular confrontation in the first round with a suitably nasty arm and triangle choke.

As recently as last week, Dana White was optimistic that he could bring Barnett over to the promotion. So hopefully they’ll continue their chinwags and their chequebook scratching as the ‘Warmaster’ would match up pretty well with the majority of the HW division and would provide entertaining fights with the likes of Frank Mir, Roy Nelson and recently deposed division king Junior Dos Santos for starters.

What do you folks reckon; would you like to see Barnett doing his thing in the UFC?

With its Google Play exclusivity now in the rear mirror, Game Dev Story developer Kairosoft has at last brought the excellent Beastie Bay to iOS today.

Its addictive premise is simple; you and an animal friend of your choosing find yourselves marooned on a tropical island and in order to survive you must root around the island in order to find the requisite materials to fashion a home for the pair of you to live in.

Effectively a game of two distinct halves, you can research and develop new structures, harvest crops and even build tourist attractions to bring in the coin. When you’re not being all Kairosoft(y) and managing stuff, you can saunter out into the wilderness and its here that things get really interesting as like Nintendo’s celebrated money-printer, you can engage in turn-based battles with creatures that you have captured yourself; fighting with the turn based commands that you give them.

Naturally, you can nurture and upgrade your ‘beasties’ by building habitats for them on your island, researching new equipment for them to use, levelling up their stats and unlocking new abilities and special moves.

Look, the game is absolutely brilliant and better yet, its totally and ridiculously free so just buy it. BUY IT I SAY.

Beastie Bay is out now for free on iOS and the Android Google Play store.

This will be at the show. Did you see what I wrote there? NI NO KUNI WILL BE AT THE SHOW.

If you don’t know already, this year’s Eurogamer Expo is jam fucking packed with some seriously great titles which are going to be playable right on the show floor. We’ve had the likes of Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, Assassins Creed 3, Resident Evil 6, Devil May Cry: DmC and many, many more already announced.

And to add further fuel to the nerdgasmic fire comes news that Namco Bandai will not only be having the newest entry in their long-running Tekken franchise available for all to play, but they’ll also be debuting the gorgeous Studio Ghibli animated, Level-5 developed PS3 JRPG Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch *pant* on the show floor too – marking the first time it’ll be playable on UK shores.

Lee Kirton, Namco PR bod and marketing director had the following to say, via press release, regarding the announcement:

“Tekken Tag Tournament brings some incredible new gameplay styles for the franchise with brand new modes, an incredible roster of characters and the most involved and detailed training mode ever created for the genre,”

“Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is one of the most beautiful games we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” he continued, undeterred. “It’s already causing quite a stir within the gaming world with its blend of superb gameplay from Level-5 and incredible animations produced and supervised by legendary Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli. It’s exciting that we can have both games hands on at the Expo.”

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Ni No Kuni; BOTH playable at this year’s Eurogamer Expo – what more do you need?

Again, if you haven’t done so already, you can grab some tickets here.

If you don’t have tickets for this, then the only conclusion I can draw is that you’re some sort of disgusting pervert or something.

The Eurogamer Expo is due to take place this year on September 27-30 at Earls Court in London.

Linkage

L Mitchell Design – Grey Goblin Studios
A hive of artistic creativity bourne out of a tremendously talented and imaginative mind, Grey Goblin Studios is a showcase of visual splendor from the deepest reaches of the human psyche. The site is actually run by one of my best friends; a superb chap

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